Archive for the ‘Well Being’ Category

You will have heard about eating your 5 fruit and veg a day for your physical health. Well now there are 5 things to do for your mental welbeing. At a recent conference in Norwich all was explained. The New Economics Foundation has distilled the report of the Foresight Project: ‘Mental Capital & Wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21st century’ into 5 key areas of action that you can take for your mental wellbeing. These are:

Connect …

Connect with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Be Active …

Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take Notice …

Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, on a train, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Keep learning …

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.

Give …

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.

There is a recognition that there is a limit to what government and policy makers can do. Only you can eat your 5 fruit and veg a day, and you are the best person to decide how best to support and improve your mental wellbeing.

We are not on our own with this. We are part of families, communities where we live and the communities that we choose to connect with. In addition many people have work colleagues. Giving has to be to someone else even if it is smiling at someone in the street or a corridor.

So as a start here is your homework 😉 what are you going to give, to whom and when. There is space for you to tell us all what you did and how it went.

People get confused about the difference between pressure and stress. We all
experience pressure regularly – it can motivate us to perform at our best. It is when
we experience too much pressure and feel unable to cope that stress can result.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates the costs to society of work related
stress to be around £4 billion each year, while 13.5 million working days
were lost to stress in 2007/08.

As an employer, you are also required by law to assess the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities and take action to control that risk. By taking action to reduce the problem, you can help create a more productive, healthy workforce and save money. Many organisations have reported improvements in productivity, retention of staff and a reduction in sickness absence after tackling work-related stress.

What are the HSE Management Standards?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has designed the Management Standards approach to help employers manage the causes of work-related stress. The Management Standards cover six key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence. They cover the primary sources of stress at work:

• Demands – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment.

• Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work.

• Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues.

• Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.

• Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles.

• Change – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation.

Does stress affect you, your company / business or the people that you work with?
What do you do to reduce this stress?

You will have heard about eating your 5 fruit and veg a day for your physical health. Well now there are 5 things to do for your mental welbeing. At a recent conference in Norwich all was explained. The New Economics Foundation has distilled the report of the Foresight Project: ‘Mental Capital & Wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21st century’ into 5 key areas of action that you can take for your mental wellbeing. These are:

Connect …

Connect with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Be Active …

Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take Notice …

Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, on a train, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Keep learning …

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.

Give …

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.

There is a recognition that there is a limit to what government and policy makers can do. Only you can eat your 5 fruit and veg a day, and you are the best person to decide how best to support and improve your mental wellbeing.

We are not on our own with this. We are part of families, communities where we live and the communities that we choose to connect with. In addition many people have work colleagues. Giving has to be to someone else even if it is smiling at someone in the street or a corridor.

So as a start here is your homework 😉 what are you going to give, to whom and when. There is space for you to tell us all what you did and how it went.

If anyone is interested in the full Foresight report please email us info@research-plus.co.uk and we can email all the pdf’s to you.